Thus far, Aunty Rose Kennedy’s attitude towards the little stranger had been the single pleasant disappointment Mr. Stagg had experienced. Aunty Rose was an autocrat. Joseph Stagg had never been so comfortable in his life as since Mrs. Kennedy had taken up the management of his home. But he stood in great awe of her.
He put the lawyer’s letter in the safe. For once he was unable to respond to a written communication promptly. Although he wore that band of crêpe on his arm, he could not actually realise the fact that his sister Hannah was dead.
Any time these fifteen years he might have run down to New York to see her. First, she had worked in the newspaper office as a stenographer. Then she had married John Lewis Cameron, and they had gone immediately to housekeeping.
Cameron was a busy man; he held a “desk job” on the paper. Vacations had been hard to get. And, before long, Hannah had written about her baby—“Hannah’s Car’lyn.”
After the little one’s arrival there seemed less chance than before for the city family to get up to Sunrise Cove. But at any time he might have gone to them. If Joseph Stagg had shut up his store for a week and gone to New York, it would not have brought the world to an end.
Nor was it because he was stingy that he had not done this. No, he was no miser. But he was fairly buried in his business. And there was no “look up” in that dim little office in the back of the hardware store. His nose was in the big ledger all the time, and there was no better or brighter outlook for him.
Business. No other interest, social or spiritual, had Joseph Stagg. To his mind, time was wasted, used in any but the three very necessary ways—eating, sleeping, and attending to one’s business.
He kept his store open every evening. Not because there was trade enough to warrant it—that was only on Saturday nights—but what would he do if he did not come down after supper and sit in his office for a couple of hours? There he could always find work to do. Outside, he was at a loss for something with which to occupy his mind.
On this evening he closed the store later than usual, and set out for The Corners slowly. To tell the truth, Mr. Stagg rather shrank from arriving home. The strangeness of having a child in the house disturbed his tranquillity.
The kitchen only was lighted when he approached; therefore, he was reassured. He knew Hannah’s Car’lyn must have been put to bed long since.